An amazing season - loads of 4 egg/chicks nests (I have never seen so many in 40 years), many more than the BWP "76% have 3 eggs" level, and just chicks everywhere including big ones ready to fledge (and fledged) which means they would have laid first eggs around mid March and some with eggs or tiny chicks.
In the Sea Empress incident which was mid Feb almost no Cormorants were affected as they had not returned to the colony then but given that they normally take a month or so to build their nests they must be returning much earlier now. In recent years there have often been earlier broods and the ringing visit date has moved from mid/late June to the very beginning of June and this year we could have gone there at the end of April and found good sized chicks. We ringed 119 chicks in under 2 hours.
In total contrast the GBB Gulls (normally the earliest of the gulls) appeared a bit late with many nests with eggs and small chicks - only 4 largish (10days old) chicks were found. The colony looks to be around 70 - 80 pairs but could be around 100 again - need to get there in early May to sort that one out.
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